GIWA reduces its grain harvest forecast, wheat and barley crops most affected

Recent frosts have taken their toll on Western Australia’s grain crop and has caused some damage to the harvest forecast.

Frosts and the likelihood of a dryer spring has prompted the Grain Industry Association of WA to lower its grain harvest forecast, but it will still be a record crop.

Recent frosts and the likelihood of a drier spring has wiped 700,000 tonnes off the West Australian grain harvest.

But it will remain the biggest crop on record for the state.

The Grain Industry Association of Western Australia has revised its grain production forecast for the state from 20.027 million tonnes in August to 19.307 million tonnes today, well above the previous harvest record of 17.737 million tonnes set in 2016-17.

Most of the production downgrades were in the Kwinana zone and the northern Geraldton zone.

Wheat and barley crops were the most affected.

But favourable weather in the Albany and Esperance zones has boosted the prospects of a better harvest, GIWA said.

“The very cold temperatures experienced in early September will reduce deliveries by growers in the worst hit areas by at least 50 per cent on wheat was expected prior to the frost events,” the association said in its September crop report.

“There were also several frost events in late August over a much wider area of the state that has taken the tops off crops that were at vulnerable growth stages.

“As well as this, more recently there were some cold mornings that will impact grain yields for crops that were flowering in regions away from the worst hit locations.”

GIWA said continuing dry conditions had also begun to hit some crops in the northern growing regions.

It said the southern growing regions had escaped frosts and hot winds, resulting in perfect conditions for grain filling.

The state’s wheat crop is now expected to produce 10.6 million tonnes, while the barley crop forecast had risen by 10,000 tonnes to five million tonnes.

The big canola crop expected in WA has only been marginally downgraded to 2.41 million tonnes.

GIWA has left its forecast of the oat harvest unchanged at 675,000 tonnes and reduced its estimates of the lupin and other pulse crops to 530,000 tonnes and 92,000 tonnes, respectively.